Dynamic monitoring of drought in Fujian Province from MODIS remote sensing data

Drought is an important influencing factor on the progress of society and agriculture. Using MODIS remotely-sensed and meteorological data for 2004～2006, the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and landscape temperature (T_s) of Fujian Province were retrieved by split-windows algorithm relating to a number of factors including topography, climate and vegetation cover. A drought monitoring strategy was subsequently established by Vegetation Water Supply Index (VWSI) model. The results show that VWSI drought monitoring model application is feasible in Fujian Province, which has plentiful vegetation resources. Equally, MODIS remotely-sensed data can be used to monitor continuously large scale drought in Fujian Province. Moreover, the study reveals observable differences in drought between North and South Fujian Province, and the degree of drought on the southeast coast of Fujian is more severe than that in the midwest. Noticeably, drought in Fujian Province is worsening with the passing of time, aggravated by economic development and urbanization.